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July 30, 2004
The Potential Power of Being Number 2
I love this entry from The Origin of Brands Blog: What should you do if you are #2?
I've alway's found #2 positions really interesting opportunities. They can be the best thing for driving attention and eventually winning a dragrace. By contrasting and picking on the big guy you have a lot to gain and they a lot to loose.
As Laura Ries points out,
"A strong #2 brand needs to position themselves as the opposite of the leader.
Listerine: bad-tasting mouthwash
# 2 Scope: good-tasting mouthwash
Home Depot: messy, male-oriented
# 2 Lowes: neat, female-oriented
Coke: older people
# 2 Pepsi: younger people
Microsoft: proprietary-software
# 2 Linux: open-source software
Wal-Mart: always low prices, messy
# 2 Target: cheap chic, wide aisles, neat
Mercedes-Benz: big, comfortable cars
#2 BMW: smaller, “driving” machines
Republicans: conservative
# 2 Democrats: liberal
(Rank determined by which party is defending the White House)"
This strategy can work great - look at Microsoft Word and Excel (in the old days) picking on WordPerfect and Lotus123 (#1 Established, complex key strokes, # 2 GUI and easy to use). And of course look at how long Avis has used it's "We try harder" position to good use.
Posted by johnza at July 30, 2004 11:56 AM
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